The present invention relates to a welding device adaptor member for attachment of a rotary welding device for providing a uniform spiral welding bead on a planar surface.
A wide variety of machinery exists in working conditions throughout the world which is exposed to abrasive and stressful conditions. Large work loads, open and corrosive conditions and time all work to wear out surfaces, such as planar or bearing surfaces, which require replacement and/or repair. For large bearing or planar surfaces, there is often a need to buildup material. Various attempts have been made to provide automated machinery for depositing welding beads in a uniform manner on the inner bores or other surfaces.
Wherefore, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the above mentioned shortcomings and drawbacks associated with the prior art welding devices.
It is an object of the invention to provide a rotary welding attachment member for uniformly building up a planar surface which is easy to setup and provides a very uniform buildup of material on the desired surface.
It is another object of the invention to provide a rotary welding attachment member for the buildup of material that is easy to position and reposition or to change the feed direction of the movement of a rider block.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a rotary welding attachment member that will create a helical or spiral buildup of material on a planar surface, which has relatively simple adjustments to allow the rotary welding attachment member to move either radially inward or outward during the helical or spiral buildup of material.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an adapter device for facilitating coupling of the rotary welding attachment member to a variety of different welding devices.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a light weight rotary welding attachment member which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture but is durable, dependable and relatively easy to utilize.
The present invention relates to a rotary welding attachment member comprising: a cam member having a cam surface; a rotatable base movable relative to the cam member, the rotatable base supporting a support rod and the support rod supporting a rider block which is movable along the support rod, a movable torch head, supporting a welding tip, being supported by the rider block, the torch head being coupled to the rotatable base via a flexible coupling to facilitate conveyance of a welding wire and a welding gas to the torch tip while the rotatable base, the support rod, the rider block and the torch head facilitating a supply of electrical current to the torch tip; and an indexing mechanism, at least partially support by the rotatable base and cooperating with the cam surface, for moving the rider block radially along the support rod as the rotatable base rotates.
The present invention also relates to a rotary welding attachment member comprising: a cam member having a cam surface; a rotatable base movable relative to the cam member, the rotatable base supporting a support rod and the support rod supporting a rider block which is movable along the support rod, a movable torch head, supporting a welding tip, being supported by the rider block, the torch head being coupled to the rotatable base via a flexible coupling to facilitate conveyance of a welding wire and a welding gas to the torch tip while the rotatable base, the support rod, the rider block and the torch head facilitating a supply of electrical current to the torch tip; an indexing mechanism, at least partially supported by the rotatable base and cooperating with the cam surface, for moving the rider block radially along the support rod as the rotatable base rotates, the indexing mechanism comprising an indexing rod supported by the rotatable base, the indexing rod having a roller which is biased, by a spring, into engagement with the cam surface of the cam member and the indexing arm is coupled to the rider block to convey the rider block one of radially inwardly and radially outwardly as the indexing arm is radially conveyed to due to the engagement between the roller and the cam surface; the rider block having an indexing locking plate which engages with the indexing arm and an indexing locking plate spring biases the indexing locking plate into a partially skewed position such that any motion of the indexing arm tending to orient the indexing locking plate in a transverse, non-skewed orientation facilitates relative movement between the indexing arm and the rider block while any motion of the indexing arm in the opposite direction tends to further skew the indexing locking plate and engages the rider block with the indexing arm so that the rider block is coupled to the indexing arm.